Datsun No-Go Fiasco

A couple of weeks ago the Global New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) tested the Maruti-Suzuki Swift and Datsun Go (owned by Nissan), two cars which are sold in India. Most countries have their own automotive standards board like the US has the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), India has the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM). NCAP is an initiative by the United Nations to make cars and roads safer around the world. NCAP usually has stricter norms in countries where big companies can push around the government officials…kinda like India.

So what were the results of the frontal impact tests for the Maruti-Suzuki Swift and Datsun Go? They deemed both cars unfit for Indian roads and sent a letter to the CEO of Nissan, Carlos Ghosn, stating he has no business selling a car that is so unsafe and should immediately stop producing the car.

The outrage in India was pretty much…not there. As expected a spokesperson from SIAM had a quote to justify the abysmal results:

Every country has its own safety requirements. Our cars are meeting safety norms set by the government. The protocol followed by Global NCAP was not designed for India and tests must be conducted based on the conditions here.

Of course, the cars tested were both without airbags and I’m willing to bet those are the most popular variants of those cars. The reality is most people will place money above their own safety in an effort to save money. And that’s the crux of the issue where SIAM is stuck, consumers don’t want to pay for expensive safety features and car manufacturers are just giving consumers what they want. But at some point the government needs to make some hard choices and enforce that ALL cars have a minimum set of safety features. If all cars go up in price by Rs. 30,000 (USD 500) then so be it, at least people will not die needlessly.